Baroque Poetry Masters: Gongora, Lope de Vega, Quevedo

Luis de Góngora y Argote: Poetic Innovation

Góngora was an innovator of poetic language of his time, practicing less Petrarchan poetry and art. His minor art includes:

• Moorish romances
• Pastoral poems
• Burlesque works, notably "The Fable of Pyramus and Thisbe" and satirical letrillas.

Sonnets

His sonnets explore themes of love and the incitement to pleasure (carpe diem). Other groups focus on burlesque, disenchantment, and the transience of life.

Longer Poems

His major works include:

• "Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea" (written in octavas reales)
• "Soledades" (written in silvas)

While love is a main theme, these poems also highlight pastoral settings. Góngora's style is characterized by its complexity, featuring mythological allusions, a highly cultivated lexicon (cultismos), and an abundance of rhetorical figures like alliterations and paronomasias.

Lope de Vega: The Phoenix of Poets

Lope de Vega's poetic work is extensive and varied, encompassing both minor art compositions and Italianate poetry.

Minor Art and Italianate Forms

• Minor Art: Includes letrillas, carols, and ballads.
• Italianate Poetry: Features sonnets, songs, eclogues, and epistles.

Key Poetic Categories

• Romance: Lope was a pioneer in creating new forms of romance, covering Moorish, pastoral, love, and religious themes.
• Petrarchan Poetry: Explores themes of love and mythology, found in epic poems like "La Dragontea" and "La Hermosura de Angélica."
• Religious Poetry: His "Rimas Sacras" collects sonnets expressing repentance, devotion, and confession of guilt.

Lope's final poetic publication, "Rimas Humanas y Divinas del Licenciado Tomé de Burguillos," is a diverse collection of sonnets, eclogues, and romances, with a notable emphasis on burlesque and satirical sonnets. His style is characterized by its simplicity of expression and an imitation of the classical style, often contrasting with Góngora's more ornate approach.

Francisco de Quevedo: Master of Conceptismo

Quevedo stands out for the vast quality and thematic variety of his work. He wrote both major and minor art poetry.

Key Poetic Themes and Styles

• Love Poetry: Modeled on Petrarchan themes, it explores the beauty of the unattainable beloved, the lover's suffering and grief, madness, and metaphysical reflections.
• Moral Poetry: Influenced by Stoic and Christian morality, this poetry addresses the transience of life, the deceitfulness of appearances, and the consciousness of death. Quevedo censures the vices of his time and defends virtue.
• Satirical and Burlesque Poetry: Critiques human behavior, social types, and the degradation of myths. He notably parodies heroic and Gongorine poetry.
• Religious Poetry: Expresses repentance for sins and profound reflections on Christ's Passion.

Quevedo also composed circumstantial or courtly praise poetry and descriptive poetry.

Quevedo's Poetic Style

• Serious Poetry: Characterized by the use of cultismos, hyperbole, and a cautionary tone.
• Satirical and Burlesque Poetry: Abounds in degrading metaphors, puns, hyperbole, and vulgar or colloquial expressions, often tending towards caricature and provoking laughter.

Quevedo is renowned as a master of lexical creation and the parody of common phrases and sayings.